Zhu Yuling Becomes World Number One for the First Time

Lausanne, Nov 2, 2017: On the back of her victory at the Uncle Pop 2017 ITTF Women’s World Cup presented by Polar Naturals, China’s ZHU Yuling (CHN) has become the women’s world number one for the first time.

The 22-year-old replaces Olympic and World Champion DING Ning (CHN) who held the top position for the past 13 months and beat ZHU in the World Championships final earlier this year.

ZHU, who is also a two time Junior World Champion stated: “Of course, I’m very happy to be able to be ranked world number one, but it’s just a ranking and doesn’t reflect the level of skills. I hope being ranked world number one is going to be another motivation for me to continue work hard for competitions in the future.”

As DING Ning has been inactive for four months, she loses her number two position and falls of the world ranking charts until she plays again. This means that CHEN Meng (CHN) is now at number two, followed by the Women’s World Cup runner-up LIU Shiwen (CHN).

The Chinese trio are followed by three Japanese players, Kasumi ISHIKAWA at number four followed by Miu HIRANO and Mima ITO.

In the November edition of the Men’s World Rankings, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) advanced to a career high of number three in the world, after becoming the Liebherr 2017 Men’s World Cup Champion for the first time.

Reigning World and Olympic Champion MA Long (CHN) who suffered a surprise defeat in the semifinals of the Men’s World Cup to Timo BOLL (GER) stays world number one, ahead of FAN Zhendong (CHN).

Like DING Ning, the Chinese pair of XU Xin and ZHANG Jike fell off the November list due to their inactivity over the last four months.

Timo BOLL benefits from this moving up to number four. Next in line appear two familiar Japanese names but in different order than previous world rankings, Koki NIWA and Jun MIZUTANI. NIWA climbs from number eight to five and, MIZUTANI from 7 to 6.

Simon GAUZY (FRA) who has had a breakthrough season cracks the top 10 for the first time, and sits in eighth position. —- ITTF